While it’s not mentioned in The Bible, I am sure that on the eight day, God created office supplies. More to the point – pens, highlighters and markers. If you haven’t already guessed, I have a small pen / marker / highlighter fetish. It isn’t something that just happened overnight – I didn’t just wake up and start looking for the perfect pen – it happened over time. Convinced that the Cross Ion is one of the best pens on the market, I’ve now started on the highlighters – fluorescent ones to be exact – to try and find the ones that have the best color, don’t fade after a few weeks, won’t leave holes in the paper and are kid safe. The Bic Brite Liner has almost all of these qualities but is lacking a little in the color department. Considering these were marked down to $1.50, I couldn’t pass them up on a recent trip to Rite-Aid. It seems they are marking down a lot of their pens and markers to make room for new stock so if automatic pencils, pens and highlighters are your thing, high tail it there before the sale ends.

Bic Brite Liner

These highlighters are standard sized and have a water based, non-toxic ink. The point is chiseled so you can use it for fine lines or thick lines depending on the situation. The tips are pretty strong so if you have a heavy hand you shouldn’t have any worries about breaking or bending the point. So far I haven’t had any trouble with it pulling up ink from photocopies but have run into some issues with gel ink pens – specifically ones made by Pilot. These pull up the ink and if you don’t catch it quickly it could ruin the highlighter for good. If this happens to you, take a piece of paper and try to work out the ink from the tip as best you can. I ruined a few of these and wasn’t very happy about it. If you don’t get all the ink out you can still use the highlighter but the color will be a little off and won’t have the impact of other fluorescent markers.

The small plastic clips on the caps are rather useless. Almost all of them have snapped or broken off when attached to the inside of the boys backpacks. The caps are pretty sturdy and give off a nice ‘snap’ when closed – an imperative when these get tossed around knapsacks and book bags. Nothing worse than reaching in to grab one and finding that the ink is all over everything. Generally these will last a few months under heavy use, longer if you only use them occasionally. Having five colors to chose from means that you can break out of the boring standard yellow but be warned, these will fade over a period of time – more so if exposed to direct sunlight. Bic claims that these won’t dry out – even if the cap is left off. That’s partly true, they won’t dry up if you leave the cap off for an hour or so but anything longer than that and you’ll have to prime the tip [fancy word for doodling] or toss it in the trash and grab another one.

Colors

This multi pack contains six highlighters but only five colors, Bic felt it a necessity to have two of the fluorescent yellows in the pack but I would have rather seen another color added instead of the duplication. The other colors include [all fluorescent] pink, blue, green and orange. The colors are similar to those on the barrel but they aren’t exact matches. The ink is nice but it is very easy to over saturate the paper, which could lead to holes or waves. The ink is non-toxic so it’s more than adequate for kids to use for projects without having to worry about their skin coming in contact with harsh chemicals. To wash off the skin, use a mild soap and a little elbow grease – especially for the blue.

Things To Know

If you don’t want to commit to six pack purchase, you can buy these individually [usually the yellow is the only one sold this way] for about .79 cents at most stores that have a pen or school supply section. The six pack set will set you back about $2.99 but I snapped it up at a clearance price of $1.50. Even at the suggested retail price this is a good deal - .50 cents a piece for a Bic highlighter – can’t beat that. These come on a cardboard hangtag and are usually found right next to market sets or in the school and office supply section. These are easiest to find at places like Office Depot and Staples but Target, Wal-Mart and major drug store chains also carry them.

The Bottom Line

While I might complain about the plastic clips and the colors fading, for $.150 I should be pretty happy that they even write. Would I purchase these again? Maybe, the color selections are a nice break from the usual yellow, the chiseled tip gives you a little freedom when highlighting and they last a fairly long time. If you’ve used Bic highlighter in the past and want to add a little color to your note taking or writing, this would be a great thing to look for while shopping. If you’ve never tried these, splurge on the .79 cent single serving to see if this would be something you’d use on a regular basis. All in all I’m pretty happy with these even with the few minor issues I mentioned earlier. My boys like them for their projects and note taking while on field trips and if they happen to lose one [or not recap it] it’s no big deal to replace it.


As always, thanks for the visit!

^V^ Freak ^V^

© 2003 Freak369


Other highlighter reviews …

Avery Marks-A-Lot Fine Mark

Sanford Highlighter Fluorescent Yellow

Stabilo Boss Original Highlighter 8-Color Desk Set with Caddy

Avery Hi-Liter Desk Style Highlighter Fluorescent Blue Ink




Recommended: Yes